Grandparents call for help in kids’ care
GRANDPARENTS or next of kin carers who have been “thrust” into looking after vulnerable children removed from their parents claim they are getting no assistance.
They are arguing should be entitled to help.
Townsville grandmother Kirsty Buckley, who looks after her grandson Cooper, said all caring costs came out of her pocket.
“Basically what happens if a grandparent … takes in a child there is no support for them,” Mrs Buckley said.
“No one will tell you what to do, nobody tells you what you are entitled to.”
Mrs Buckley said kinship carers should be offered the same entitlements as foster carers.
“Foster carers get $ 500 a fortnight to meet the out of pocket costs of the children they care for each, we get nothing,” she said. “Every cost is ours. “The only thing we are entitled to, if our income is low enough, is we can get family tax benefit and child care as- they more sistance. I think the Federal Government should look at providing a carer payment, which is $ 60 a week. That would be something at least.
“Ultimately everyone with a child in care should be treated the same.”
Mrs Buckley said the number of kinship carers in Townsville was unknown, as there were no formal figures included in the Census but she suspected it was high.
“It’s drastic, there’s five families in my school of a hundred children,” she said.
Last year there were 908 children in care in North Queensland, with more than 40 per cent living with their next of kin. Mrs Buckley said more was needed to explain what support services were on offer for kinship carers.
She was one of about six members of Kinship Carers Townsville who raised their concerns about the lack of support to Townsville MP Scott Stewart.
Mr Stewart said carers in this situation often found they felt like they had to navigate that situation themselves.
He said he would pass on the suggestions by the group to Minister for Child Safety Di Farmer.
“That’s certainly something I am going to take now to the minister to say is there any way we can look at this, not just here in Townsville but this could be something we could look at right across the state, a way of just helping grandparents who have been thrust in this situation,” Mr Stewart said.
“The group have come up with is there anywhere we could have a liaison person, who if we get into a situation they can contact this liaison person, who can take them through you’ve got to do this first.”